Woodland District 50 school board picks Renea Amen, former member, to fill vacancy

An attorney and former Woodland District 50 board member was appointed Thursday to fill the vacancy left by the departure of now-state Rep. Joyce Mason.

The appointment of Renea Amen comes less than three weeks after the Lake County electoral board removed her from the April ballot over issues with her petition papers.

The Woodland District 50 school board interviewed three candidates before selecting Amen, district spokeswoman Carolyn Waller Gordon said. Four people had initially applied, but one withdrew before the interview stage.

Amen said she decided to apply for the vacancy because several policies and initiatives she had been working on when she was last on the board are still in the works, and she wanted to try and finish those.

She pointed in particular to a homework policy, which she said she pushed for because she felt homework was being given too much weight and was causing some students to fail.

She said she wanted homework to instead complement work done in the classroom.

Amen also pointed to the district’s efforts around diversity and inclusivity, saying she wants to make sure not just that proposals put forth by the equity and inclusivity committee, which began meeting in August, but that staff and the community “truly, truly understand what diversity is and what inclusivity is.”

Amen had previously been appointed to the board in August 2016 to fill a vacancy caused by an out-of-district move. She ran unsuccessfully for a four-year term in 2017 in a crowded field of 11 candidates vying for four seats.

Woodland District 50

Renea Amen, an attorney and U.S. Navy veteran, was appointed Jan. 24 to the Woodland District 50 school board. She had previously been appointed to the board in August 2016.

Renea Amen, an attorney and U.S. Navy veteran, was appointed Jan. 24 to the Woodland District 50 school board. She had previously been appointed to the board in August 2016. (Woodland District 50)

A native of New York State, Amen is a Navy veteran who worked as a real estate agent and corrections officer before graduating from law school, according to a biography provided by Woodland. Amen also works as an adjunct professor of business law for Columbia College of Missouri.

She also has two children in the district, she said.

Amen said she didn’t know whether she’d run for a full term when the appointment is up in 2021, but said her “passions don’t generally just die.”

“If in 2021, I see need for myself then I’ll run,” she said. “If the district doesn’t need me anymore, then I won’t.”